Neiman Marcus, after 8 years in private hands, files for IPO

By Andria Cheng

It’s official.

Bloomberg News

Neiman Marcus is returning to the public market, confirming rumors that have been circulating.

The luxury retailer, which also owns Bergdorf Goodman on New York’s Fifth Avenue, filed its IPO papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Taken private in 2005 in a $5.1 billion deal by private equity owners TPG and Warburg Pincus, it said it won’t receive any proceeds from the IPO because its shareholders are the ones selling the shares.

It hasn’t yet disclosed how many shares it will offer and at what price. The company’s filing said it plans to raise $100 million, though spokeswoman Ginger Reeder said that amount may change throughout the process. Bloomberg News said in May the private equity owners may seek about $8 billion.

After being dinged by the financial meltdown in 2008, luxury retail group’s same-store sales have outperformed the broader retail sector for each of the past 14 quarters, Retail Metrics data showed.

“The global luxury goods industry is a very attractive segment of the overall apparel and accessories market,” Neiman said in the filing. Citing Euromonitor data, the company said the global luxury goods industry is expected to grow over 40% from $302 billion in 2012 to $427 billion in 2017.

Neiman Marcus, which also owns discount outlet Last Call and the smaller Cusp chain targeting younger shoppers, increased sales 6.5% to $4.5 billion in the year ended April 27. Online sales total about $1 billion as it has expanded global shipping to over 100 countries, including Australia and Russia. To target the growing affluent population in China, it has introduced a Chinese language Internet site.

The retailer, which owns 41 full-priced namesake stores, said its growth strategy includes continued online investments, opening more of its smaller format Last Call and Cusp stores, and increasing its proprietary private label offerings, less than 2% of sales.

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About Behind the Storefront

Behind the Storefront is a blog about all things retail. It’s aimed at investors, shoppers and anyone else with a passion for learning about what drives consumer behavior. Hosted by Andria Cheng, Behind the Storefront will cover the business, brands and shopping behavior that’s behind some of the biggest companies, and largest employers, in the world. You can reach Andria at Acheng@marketwatch.com.